Five Years Later
by RightWriteWright
Summary: The gang is reunited at Hollywood Arts' 5-year classes reunion, and they have surprises to share! All except for Tori, but what she doesn't know is that Andre has a surprise of his own planned. (Might have some angst in later chapters, but, this is mostly happy Bade, Cabbie, and Tandre fluff.)
1. Chapter 1: Beck & Jade

"Who even _has_ a five-year high school reunion?" Jade sighed, glaring at Beck, who was already dressed in gray collared shirt, slacks, and a loose-fitting tie. Meanwhile, she sat on their bed in a fluffy black bathrobe, her still-wet hair sticking to her face and neck.

Beck shrugged. "Hollywood Arts. Now, c'mon. We're going to be late. It's a half-hour drive, and the reunion starts at 5."

"I don't want tooooo," Jade moaned, burying her face in a pillow. Beck, unnoticed by her, rolled his eyes and sat beside her rubbing small circles between her shoulder blades.

"And why not?" he asked, voice dripping with patience. "Don't you want to see Tori and Andre?" Jade groaned in response. "Cat and Robbie are flying in from New York," Beck cooed. Jade lifted her head just enough to make eye contact with him. He was wearing her down, and he knew it. "Don't you want to show off that shiny new ring on your finger to all the girls who flirted with me while we were in school? Make them hate you once and for all?"

Jade grinned and Beck knew that he had won. She extricated her left hand from under the pillow and waggled her fingers in front of her face, admiring the sleek, emerald cut diamond that had once belonged to a 1910s socialite. She had been murdered a century ago, and the ring had made its way through her ex-fiancé's family before ending up in a pawn shop in downtown Los Angeles. Jade had fallen in love with the ring's gruesome history faster than she had fallen in love with Beck.

"Do you think they'll cry?" Jade asked, entirely too excited by the thought.

"Guess we'll have to go and see."

Beck gave her shoulder a final pat, then playfully smacked her ass.

"You pig!" she shrieked, a smile negating any real anger, because she knew that he knew it turned her on just a little.

"Just call me Wilbur," Beck smiled.

Jade made a retching sound as she climbed out of bed and moved to the bathroom to do her makeup. "I will _not _marry you if I have to call you Wilbur," she called from the other room.

"I sometimes wonder if you're going to marry me _now_," he admitted. "You won't let me tell Andre. _You _haven't even told Cat. Our parents don't know—not that mine will be happy or yours will care, but still. We got engaged a month ago, and it feels like a secret that only we have security clearance for."

Jade came out of the bathroom holding a mascara wand in a threatening way that only she could manage. "Don't be so dramatic," she said. "We can make a big to-do of it tonight, like you said. I'll tell Cat in person, she can see the ring, and everyone else can boohoo that they've wasted the last five years thinking they had a shot with you. Besides, remember my one condition for saying yes?"

Beck ran a hand through his hair, vividly remembering what she had said. "You said, 'Yes, but only after I wrap on my first movie.'" He repeated the words with a tinge of exasperation. Jade always had to have control, hence her "conditions." It was endearing and maddening all at the same time.

"Exactly," Jade said, returning to her makeup in the mirror. "And I haven't even _signed_ _onto_ a movie yet. Not as a director, not as a writer, not even as an actress. So I don't want to get everyone all excited only to make them wait another five years or something ridiculous for a wedding."

Beck came up behind her, and they made eye contact in the mirror. "Not that I wouldn't wait a ridiculous amount of time to marry you," he whispered, snaking his hands around her waist and deftly untying the knotted belt of her bathrobe, "but why the condition?" Jade shimmied out of his grasp and moved to the closet, letting her robe fall open as she picked out a dress, nonchalantly aware of and enjoying Beck's ogling gaze. She finally decided on a backless black lace cocktail dress with long sleeves.

"Because, I want to see the name 'Jade West' on the big screen just once before I change it," she replied.

"Babe, it's the twenty-first century. You don't have to change your last name."

"And pass up the opportunity to be that avant-garde artist with two first names? No way. 'Jade West' is punchy, but 'Jade Oliver' sounds like someone who's made it."

Beck sighed and gently kissed her forehead as she slid her arms into the sleeves of her dress. Her mind was made up, and there was nothing he could do about it. It was one of the many reasons he loved her. He only hoped one of the dozen agencies she'd sent her most recent round of resumes, tapes, and screenplays to would respond soon.

"What about when _Dead As A Doornail _played at Cannes last year? That's an insane honor. Doesn't that count?" He gestured to the bedroom wall as he spoke, referencing the adjacent room that they had turned into their shared office and on the walls of which hung their diplomas from the University of Southern California—Jade's from the School of Cinematic Arts' John Wells Division of Writing for Screen and Television and Beck's from the School of Dramatic Arts' Acting for the Stage, Screen, and New Media program. Jade's final film project had been selected to be screened during a student segment at the Cannes Film Festival in France the year before.

Jade was classically unfazed. "If a studio had picked it up, then, yeah, it would count. But since they didn't, it doesn't." Beck opened his mouth for rebuttal, but she cut him off. "And, before you say it, no, no amount of amazing, international sex will make it count." She finished fastening the strap of her shoe around her ankle.

"You thought the sex was amazing?" he teased.

"We're late. Let's go."


	2. Chapter 2: Tori & Andre

Tori Vega was used to waiting. She wasn't good at it, but she was used to it. She had waited for a record deal following the Platinum Music Awards, but that hadn't happened. She waited for a callback from any of the auditions she had dragged herself to around LA, but that hadn't happened. She waited for her successful songwriter boyfriend to propose, but that _still _hadn't happened. Not that she was _un_happy with her life—she sang in a wedding band and did her own shows at night (she had a recurring gig at one less-than-sleezy bar in town); she'd had bit roles in TV series and a handful of commercials every year (one of them national), and she lived in a nice condo with her emotionally and financially supportive boyfriend—she just felt like the effortless magnetism of "Tori Vega" had faded since high school, and landing the breakout roles and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities was proving to be more than a little difficult outside the walls of Hollywood Arts. It wasn't that Tori wasn't happy, but she wasn't satisfied, either.

But, at this moment, Tori was _tired_ of waiting, and she _wasn't_ happy. "Andre Harris! I don't care how many number one hits you've written or how many times you've played guitar in a hot tub with Harry Styles, Sikowitz is not going to hold that boat for us, so you better get your perfectly toned ass down here right now!"

Andre gave himself a last once-over in the floor length closet mirror, took a steadying breath, checked his pockets, and nodded. His burgundy suit, black dress shirt, and white tie were all in check. His signature dreadlocks were sitting nicely in place. Everything was going according to plan—except for his on-edge girlfriend who was doing nothing to decrease his anxiety. His anxiety that she knew nothing about. And wouldn't know anything about for a few more hours. By which point, hopefully, his anxiety would be replaced by elation. But Tori didn't know about anything, so he put on a smile and practically bounded down the stairs to the living room where she was waiting.

"That's 10 number ones in the last year and _thrice_ that I've jammed in a hot tub with the Styles-meister, for your information." One thing that Tori had always loved about Andre was that his voice sounded like a song, a fact, that, in this instant, was making it hard to be upset that they should have left for their high school reunion 15 minutes ago.

"Well, I hope 'Only Girl in the Room' and 'Next Time I'm Sorry' can dissipate the LA traffic and get us to the marina on time," she pouted, referencing Andre's most recent hits.

Andre only smiled as he grabbed his car keys with one hand and wrapped his free hand around Tori's waist. "I did write both of those about you, Tor, and if anyone thinks she has the power to control traffic, it's you." Tori rolled her eyes and let Andre lead her out their front door, Shawn Mendes' voice echoing Andre's lyrics in her head: _You're dancing on me / And you know just how to move / You say you want me / And, damn, you know I want you, too / And I don't even care that your friends are watching us / No / Cause right here in your arms I know that this is love / Oh / So tell me all the things that you wanna do / Read my lips: this night is only for you / Cause, to me, you're the only girl in the room_

The car ride to Marina Del Ray was, in part, what Tori had expected. The going was slow with the stop-and-go-traffic, but the mood inside the car was different. She and Andre were usually able to ride in comfortable silence, but, tonight, the silence made Tori jittery. She assumed they were both a little more nervous about their five-year reunion than they cared to admit. For one, Tori wasn't exactly in an ideal place in her (non-existent) music career, and she didn't want to be seen as the girl with all the potential who didn't live up to it. And, two, she and Andre hadn't been a couple when they graduated, and Tori hoped her former classmates would be happier for them than the opinionated old woman they had encountered in the grocery store last week who gave them an earful about the importance of dating the "right" people, the "sanctity" of marriage, and how their children would be much happier "not having to explain why they looked the way they did." Because, even in southern California, racism found ways to insert itself into their lives. It was always uncalled for, always disgusting, and always hurtful. Tori shook her head and decided to distract herself from the memory by nervously eyeing the clock and making conversation.

"Are you excited to see everyone?" she asked. "Cat and Robbie are flying in, and we haven't seen Beck and Jade since their graduation and the Cannes Festival last year."

Andre glanced over and smiled, bringing Tori a great deal of peace. His smile could always calm her down. "It'll be good to have the gang all together again. I hear Lil Red ain't so red anymore and that Robbie and Rex are in talk for another comedy tour."

"Oh, I hope they'll record this one for another Netflix special! I laughed so hard during _Emergency REXit_ that I cried!"

"Is that the one where Rex talks about surviving an 'assassination attempt' by _Lori Mega_, the crazy girl who sucked him into a woodchipper?"

Tori blushed. "No, that's in _Thank You, REXt_. Which is also a great show."

"Tor, does it bother you that Robbie uses our high school antics for material for his shows?"

Tori thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Not really. I like this better than when he was using us as fodder for 'Robarazzi' on The Slap. At least I have time away from the dumb things we did in high school. And hearing Rex embellish our adventures is always hilarious. And no one besides us will know it's anything but a joke anyway."

"I guess you're right. But there are still a few things I'd prefer didn't get shared with the world."

"Robbie has standards," Tori said, only hesitating a little. "He won't let Rex ruin us." She rested a hand on Andre's thigh as they drove.

Andre smiled again and took Tori's hand. The comfortable silence returned, and they rode the rest of the way to the marina in silence.


	3. Chapter 3: Cat & Robbie

"Oh, okay. Just one more autograph."

"Um, yeah…of course we'll take a picture with you."

"Rob, I HATE pictures!"

"I'll be back on stage next week. I'm just taking a little bit of a vacation."

"New tour dates are being added, but I don't know when or where. Sorry."

"Shoulda bought tickets sooner, ya LOSERS!"

"Thanks!"

"Thank you!"

"GET LOST!"

Cat, Robbie, and Rex finally closed the car door on the scores of ravenous fans that had followed them off the plane, around the airport, and into the parking lot. They hadn't been back to LA (with the exception of Robbie and Rex's tour dates) since their careers had taken off a few years earlier, but they hadn't expected the hometown crowd to be quite so…aggressive. It wasn't even five o'clock yet, and they were already physically and emotionally exhausted.

Robbie buckled Rex into the back seat, started the rental car, and turned to Cat. "What if we just went back to the hotel and…?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and let his hands wander down Cat's arms, his fingers dancing dangerously close to her chest.

"We don't have a hotel for the night. We're staying with Andre and Tori."

"We could _get _a hotel."

Cat giggled and pushed a piece of brown hair behind her ear. She had dyed it back to her natural color for her most recent Broadway role: Mimi in _Rent_. She was spectacular. The crowds loved her. And Cat loved performing. Back in the car, he solitary ring on her left hand caught the afternoon sunlight spraying fractals of light onto the interior.

"Better take that off before someone sees," Robbie advised. "I can't believe you got through the airport crowds without someone noticing."

"I meant to take it off when we landed, but _someone_ thought I should be doing _other _things with my hands," she reminded him with a wink. "Besides, what if I _want _someone to see? What if I want the world to know that _I'm _going to be Mrs. Caterina Shapiro?" Cat punctuated her sentence with jazz hands, and Robbie couldn't help but smile. His fiancée wasn't the best at keeping secrets, but she had been doing her best these last few months. She hadn't even told Jade, her best friend. He knew it must be killing her on the inside.

"I know." Gently, he took Cat's hand, slipped her ring off, and put it in his shirt pocket before kissing her. "Soon. As soon as we finish negotiations for this project. They're talking a TV show, Cat. And another Netflix special. All that press _plus _an engagement. It'll be good publicity for both of us. My agent should be calling back any day now. Then, we can tell the world."

"And my brother?"

"Are they letting him have his phone in the hospital again?"

"No. Not since last time when he looked up 'how to blow up a hospital.'"

"Then we'll write him a letter. We'll even include pictures of us and the ring so he can see it."

"He ate the last picture we sent him."

"We can frame it."

"He can't have glass. It's a safety haz—"

"WILL YOU SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR LOONY TUNES BROTHER ALREADY?" Rex yelled from the backseat.

"Rex!" Robbie chastised.

Cat only giggled. "He's not a Loony Tune. He's a boy."

Robbie took that as his cue to pull out of the parking lot. He turned on the radio, and Demi Lovato's "Next Time I'm Sorry" was playing. They just caught the final chorus: _This time it's over / But next time I'm sorry / Cause you always take me back / And I always break what we have / This time it's over / But next time I'm sorry / I'm trying to change / It's a twisted game / I'm not sure I'll win / But I promise I'll be sorry again and again / Every time that I lie / And pull you back in / I promise I'll be sorry again_

"Andre wrote that," Cat said when the song was over. "Tori told me it was about a fight they had."

Robbie hadn't known that was one of Andre's songs, but he wasn't surprised. It was good: powerful, moving, and…sad. He wasn't used to Andre's songs being sad, but, if like Cat said, he had written this after a fight with Tori, it made sense that he could write an equally beautiful and painful piece. Robbie only hoped his friend was okay, but he didn't know what to say. That was the nice thing about Cat, though. She didn't always need a reply. Instead, she filled the silence herself.

"Would you ever write a joke about one of our fights?"

Robbie thought. Not hard, because it didn't take much thought. "Only if it was years later, and we were past it, and you told me it was okay," he said.

"So, like me being mad about you letting the dream children eat me?"

Robbie smirked. "Would you be okay with that?"

Cat paused. Then she shrugged. "Yeah, it's a pretty funny dream."

"Then maybe I will," he smiled. "Got that, Rex?" he called to the puppet in the backseat. Rex's fake snoring was the only reply.


	4. Chapter 4

The traffic was bad enough that Tori and Andre missed the cocktail hour on the boat, but they walked onto the deck three minutes before the ship was to set sail, much to Tori's frustration and relief. Hand-in-hand with Andre, she smiled up at him and saw her own excitement and anxiety mirrored in his face, He shrugged as if to say, _"Let's do this_."

They didn't take another step toward the party before they were cut off by Erwin Sikowitz, their beloved former acting teacher.

"Tori! Andre!" he greeted them with a half-embrace, a difficult task with a coconut in each hand. He hadn't changed much in five years; he still wore the same, mismatched layers of clothing and devious grin, and he still hadn't invested in a pair of shoes. The only physical changes were the stray lines by his eyes and his ever-thinning hair. Not that any of that seemed to bother Sikoowitz. He still loved teaching and planned on doing it as long as he was helping his students find success in their fields. Which, based on his sporadic communications with Beck, Jade, Tori, Andre, Cat, and Robbie, they _were _finding success, and he hadn't lost his touch. Just five years out, they were some of his most accomplished—and favorite—former students, so he was excited for the chance to see them all together again.

"How are you?" he asked. "Have you caught up with Beck and Jade yet? I just saw Cat and Robbie wondering around. And Sinjin was just peeping into the women's restroom. He's gotten much more attractive, but he's still a weirdo. And—"

"Slow down, Sikowitz!" Andre laughed. "We haven't seen anyone. We just got here."

Sikowitz didn't miss a beat. "Well, let's go then!" He spun on his heels and started off across the deck of the boat just as the whistle blew to announce it was leaving the deck. Andre and Tori obediently followed.

Jade rolled her eyes when she saw Sikowitz and his coconuts coming toward them. She and Beck were talking to a group of girls that included Meredith and several of her friends whom Jade hated but hadn't bothered to learn their names-well, Beck was talking to them; Jade couldn't be bothered to follow the conversation, because, on one hand, she didn't care, and, on the other, Beck's hand was on her hipbone and his fingers were lazily dancing up and down her side effectively distracting her from anything being said. But Jade was bored, and Sikowitz was quickly approaching, so she cut off whatever Beck was saying.

Jade looked at Meredith, whom she had a special hatred or since she had gone on a date with Beck. She wanted to hurt her most. "Oh, Meredith," she practically cooed, "did we tell you? Beck and I are getting married!" And, with that, she dramatically presented her left hand, much to the shock of the others.

"Oh, Jade! That's beautiful!" Meredith cried, though not genuinely. Jade could smell a shoddy acting job a mile away, and Meredith wasn't even trying that hard to hide her disappointment.

Jade just grinned. "The original owner was murdered," she said, a twisted smile spreading across her face. Beck tightened his grip on his waist.

Meredith and her friends exchanged aghast looks that made Jade positively giddy. Finally composing themselves, a blonde girl (her name might have been Sandra, Jade thought; she looked like a Sandra) turned to Beck.

"Um, congratulations, you guys. Have you set a date?"

Beck's smile faltered, imperceptible to everyone but Jade, who resisted rolling her eyes. "Not yet," he said. "We're waiting to see where Jade's career takes her next before we set anything in stone. We're hoping some time next year." This time, Jade _did _roll her needed to stop giving these ganks any information that could make them think that she wasn't being bombarded with studio offers—which she wasn't, but she didn't need Meredith and the Talentless Hacks to know that. Thankfully, Sikowitz appeared just then, keeping her from laying into both her fiancé and the nosy little bitches in front of her.

"Beck! Jade! Meredith!" Sikowitz exclaimed. He paused, looking at the other girls, before halfheartedly adding, "Meredith's friends! Look who I found! It's Tori and Andre!"

"It's us," Tori confirmed with a wave.

"What up, man?" Andre said, reaching out to greet Beck with their old handshake.

"Not much," Beck smiled back.

"Oh, what about your-?" Meredith never finished her question, because the glare that Jade gave her was enough to send her, Maybe Sandra, and the rest of the clique scuttling away.

"Nice to see you again, too, Jade," Andre said.

"Yeah," Jade replied, her voice lacking any of its typical venom. And she meant it. She liked Andre. And she was coming around to not loathing Tori. Knowing that she hadn't gone to college _and _that wasn't being handed leading roles and record deals just by showing her pretty little cheekbones was really satisfying to Jade.

"I can't believe it's been a year since we've seen each other," Tori said.

Any wistful nostalgia Tori may have felt was snuffed out by the sudden sensation of arms being thrown around her neck and Cat Valentine's high-pitched squeal in her ears.

"Oh, Tori, I've missed you so much!" she shrieked.

Behind her, Robbie passed to cocktails to Beck and Jade.

"Thanks," Beck smiled.

Jade rolled her eyes. "What took you so long? As soon as you left, Meredith and her Gank Gang came up and would _not_ stop talking to us."

Robbie shrugged. "There was a line at bar. Then Rex wanted to go catch up with Sherry and McKenzie, and Cat thought she saw a dolphin."

Tori was disentangling herself from Cat's grip. "I've missed you, too, Cat! I'm sorry we haven't been out to New York in a while. How's your new show?"

Cat gushed about her latest Broadway run for the next ten minutes, talking so fast and dropping so many names of the other actors and staff that Tori and Andre were dizzy. Beck and Jade, having apparently heard all this before, nonchalantly sipped their drinks, mentally undressing each other every time their eyes met. Robbie patiently redirected Cat's story whenever she wandered too far from the point, but when she was finally finished (or paused for a breath), Jade cut her off.

"I'm bored," she announced. "Let's go below deck. There's literally no one else up here I want to talk to." Jade stalked off with Beck in tow, not even looking behind her to see if the others had followed; she knew they had.


	5. Chapter 5

Jade grinned and shouldered the stubborn door with a final, triumphant grunt. It gave in, as everything did with Jade. Beck smiled, but Tori looked nervous.

"Um…Jade? Isn't this breaking and entering?"

Jade groaned. "Hollywood Arts rented out this whole boat for the night. The cargo hold is part of the boat, isn't it? Now, shut up and get in here."

The cargo hold was exactly the kind of dark, creepy place that would bring Jade West joy. It was dimly lit by a few single yellow lightbulbs and furnished by old trunks, crates, and cobwebs. While the others were slightly taken aback, Jade was all smiles as she entered the dingy room. "Well, let's go!" she barked.

"Okie dokies," Cat shrugged. "We don't have that long before we perform, anyway." She settled onto a wooden crate, but quickly shifted to Robbie's lap when the pink sequins on her dress kept catching on the splintering wood. Across from them, Andre and Beck took seats on two trunks. Jade sat beside Beck and tossed her legs across his lap while Tori stood behind Andre and wrapped her arms around his neck, her frustration from earlier gone.

"Before we what?" Tori gasped. Her arms tightened around Andre's neck.

Andre put his hands on top of Tori's and gently pried them away from his throat out of fear that she'd accidentally strangle him. "Uh, Cat, _where _are performing exactly?"

"Up on deck," Cat replied.

The group waited for an explanation that never came.

"Cat, you did _not_ sign us up for the open mic night thing Sikowitz was badgering us about, did you?"" Jade rolled her eyes.

Cat's eyes sparkled. "I did! I thought it'd be fun! Just like old times at Karaoke Dokie!"

Time froze for a moment as everyone considered Cat's motives.

"Okay, but we're doing a girls' number," Jade said. It _would _be fun to sing with Cat again. She and Tori had even had some good songs together at one point. The three of them were probably the best singers here. "'Single Ladies' by Beyoncé."

"Ouch," Beck exclaimed with fake offense. "Are you trying to tell me something, babe?"

"Ugh, no. I'm going to flirt with _you_ the whole song, and then flash_ this _at the end." She held out her engagement ring for her friends to see, and both she and Beck beamed from ear to ear as the others reacted.

"OH EM GEE, JADE! ROBBIE AND I ARE ENGAGED, TOO!" Cat slapped her hands over her mouth. "Dammit, I wasn't supposed to tell! And I was doing so good, too!" She looked at Robbie, her apology written across her face. "Don't be mad at me," she whispered.

Robbie, whose jaw was nearly to the floor as he looked from Jade and Beck to Cat, just put an arm around Cat and mumbled, "I couldn't be mad at my fiancée."

Tori moved to the middle of the room. "Hold up, you're _both_ engaged?"

Cat squealed. "My ring is in Robbie's pocket because we weren't supposed to tell anyone yet, because we're waiting for Robbie's manager to get him a TV show, and we haven't even told our families, but I got so excited when I saw Jade's ring that it just slipped out, but I'm really excited and—"

"_Yes_, Vega, it appears that Cat and I are both engaged," Jade said, raising her voice over Cat's high-pitched rambling.

"Wow," Tori collapsed into Andre's lap, "that's awesome, you guys!" Jade couldn't help but notice that Tori did _not _think it was awesome. It didn't take a film critic to see that she was dripping with disappointment and jealousy. Part of Jade loved that, but part of her thought it was sad. "Just don't plan your weddings for the same day. I can't be two places at once."

"Tell us the story, Jade!" Cat cut in. "How did Beck propose?"

Jade looked at Beck and shrugged. "Beck tells it better."

Beck ran one hand through his hair and took Jade's hand with his free one, gently playing with her ring as he talked.

"Well, I bought the ring the same week we signed the lease on our apartment—"

Jade's jaw registered surprise. He hadn't mentioned _that _detail to her. "Babe, we've been living there for four years."

Beck only grinned. "I know." He squeezed her hand. "So I had the ring, I just needed to ask. I should have done it that day, but we were 19, and I had this grand delusion that there would be a perfect moment out of a movie, and I would just _know_ to propose, but after four years of waiting for the 'right' moment, I decided that there wasn't ever going to be a _wrong_ moment, because I already had the right woman. So, about a month ago, I decided to just do it."

"And he knew I'd kill him if he tried any grand, public gesture," Jade said, taking over. "I had just come home. I had been writing at the library—"

Tori snickered.

"What? I needed to quick access to their occult section!—and Beck was waiting with dinner and coffee and a 3-movie _Scissoring _marathon. And we were fooling around on the couch, because Beck's fear is a little bit of a turn on, you know?" Beck grimaced but let Jade continue. "And he sent _me _to the bedroom for a condom, which I was a little pissed about at the time, but when I walked in, I saw that the whole room was covered in pictures of us. I mean, he found the first picture we had _ever _taken together from, like, eighth grade. And I turned around to yell something at him, and he was behind me, on one knee, all stupid and chivalrous."

"You usually don't mind getting me on my knees. I thought it would be appropriate," Beck shrugged, wiggling his eyebrows at Jade.

Jade was trying to play it cool, but both she and Beck could see how excited she was to finally tell their friends about their engagement. In fact, she was so caught up in reliving the moment that she forgot they weren't alone when she asked, "Do you remember what you said to me when you proposed?"

Beck chuckled. "Yeah, I actually, uh, wrote it down and memorized it like a monologue so I wouldn't fuck it up."

"Ooooh, can we hear it?" Cat squealed, bringing Beck and Jade out of their little reverie.

"Yeah! Do the 'scene'!" Tori laughed, but there was a definite longing in her eyes that everyone, including Andre, could see.

Beck and Jade looked at each other. Beck expected a firm "no," but Jade just rolled her eyes and disentangled their limbs.

"Do you remember your lines?" he asked with a smirk.

"You better hope I don't rewrite this scene," Jade bit back with a matching, if more mischievous, smirk of her own. "On your knees," she commanded (like she was used to saying it), handing him the engagement ring she had just removed from her own finger. Beck obliged, and Jade turned her back to him. The dark, dusty room was riddled with anticipation and excitement, but when Jade turned around, she only saw Beck's calm brown eyes and easy smile, and she was instantly back in their bedroom being blindsided by his proposal all over again.

And when Beck spoke it was with the same conviction and love as the first time. He was a damn good actor, Jade knew, but he wasn't playing some character in love. He _was _in love. The script was just to keep himself from making a fool of himself.

"Jade West," he began, as if he was asking her to marry him all over again, "I will never get over the rush of your name on my lips. I will never get over how lucky I am that your name has been tugging at my heart for eight years now. My heart has loved you since we were 14. My head has known that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you since we were 16. But my soul, my soul has loved yours since before time began. Since we were nothing but blackness and starlight and abstract ideas floating through a galaxy. And maybe it's chance that all of our cells came to exist on the same planet in the same country in the same state in the same city at the same moment in time, and maybe it's chance that our paths even crossed out of the millions of people in Los Angeles, but it happened, and I want to make the most of those astronomical odds. I'd like to love you for as long as possible, until we fade back into the blackness and starlight that we came from. I'd like to grow with you and fight with you and make up with you and cry with you and celebrate with you and try with you for the rest of our lives. And I would really, really like to be able to call myself your husband. So, Jade West, will you marry me?"

And just like she had the first time, Jade cocked one eyebrow at him and fought back the tears welling up in her eyes. Beck had a way with words, that was for sure.

"Magic word?" she grinned.

"Please?" Beck smiled back.

And Jade pulled him into a standing position and kissed him—a good kiss, in her opinion, one with tongues clashing and hands wandering and teeth nipping at lips. When they finally broke apart, she ran her tongue over her bottom lip and whispered, as if her physical "answer" hadn't been enough, "Yes."

As if it had been rehearsed, Beck slipped the ring onto her finger, and Jade let them both re-enjoy the moment before adding her quintessentially Jade caveat: "But only after I wrap on my first movie."

"And that's basically how it happened," Beck said, snapping everyone back to the present in the cargo hold of the ship that hosted the Hollywood Arts reunion.

Tori and Cat clapped. Andre and Robbie sat dumbstruck, the latter's mouth hanging open.

"Beck, that was beautiful!" Tori cried. She and Cat had tears in her eyes.

"He totally stole that 'blackness and starlight' bit from the last screenplay I wrote, but I'll let it slide, because it's damn good writing," Jade said as they settled back on the overturned trunk they called a bench.

Beck shrugged. "Guilty as charged," he admitted. "I'm an actor, after all. I know a good line when I see it. But the loving you forever part, that was me."

"I know." Jade leaned towards him so that her lips brushed his ear. "That was my favorite part anyway." When she pulled back, she looked at Cat. "So, Cat, you're just going to leave us hanging? Show us the ring. Tell us _your _story."

Cat took a deep breath, and everyone braced themselves for a whirlwind story. "Well, it was Valentine's Day—which is, like, my favorite day, get it? Because my name's Cat _Valentine_, but it won't be for much longer, unless I don't change it, but we haven't really talked about that yet, and I'm not sure how my agent would feel about that, but I think you can change your name socially and not professionally—"

"_Cat_," Jade warned.

"So it was Valentine's Day, which made me happy, but I was sad because Robbie and I both had shows, so I didn't think we'd see each other until we got home, and we didn't have any plans to go out or anything, because when we go out together, there tend to be a lot of fans who want pictures and autographs, and Rex always says something mean to someone and we have to leave, so we've started leaving him at home, but then people want to know where he is, so sometimes I tell people he's hanging out with my brother, even though my brother is at a special hospital—"

"Cat! Get to the point!" Jade snapped.

Cat barely seemed to notice. "But when I got to the theater for my call time, Robbie was in my dressing room, and there were so many candles and pink rose petals, and Mr. Purple was there because he lives in my dressing room whenever I'm doing a show, and there was a little black box tied around his neck, and Robbie got all weird and nervous, and he couldn't talk for a minute after I walked in, and he kind of passed out for a few seconds, so I opened the box and saw the ring—" she dug her hand into Robbie's shirt pocket and fished said ring out "—and then I kissed him, and he _really _woke up, and he asked me to marry him, and I said yes!"

Andre shook his head. "Wait, Robbie, you actually fainted? _Before _you proposed? I thought you were over your stage fright now that you're a big star."

"Hey!" Robbie shot back. "It's terrifying! I don't care if the people in the audience want to spend the rest of their lives with me! I care if Cat does! Beck, weren't you nervous when you proposed to Jade?"

Jade eyed Beck coolly, and he furrowed his brow. "I mean, not really. I was just relieved it was over."

"Oh, thanks, _that _makes me feel special," Jade rolled her eyes.

"I _meant _that I was relieved that I finally stopped worrying about making it perfect and just asked. But," he added, turning back to Robbie and Andre, "I'm sure it's normal to be nervous. Jade and I just aren't normal."

"Normal is boring," she confirmed.

"But so nervous that you pass out?" Andre argued.

"I thought it was sweet!" Cat pouted. "Robbie cares _so much_—"

This time, Cat was cut off, not by one of her friends, but by Robbie's ringing cell phone.

"That's weird," he muttered, looking at his phone. Then, louder, "It's my manager. I should probably take this." He gently nudged Cat off his lap and moved to a darker, more secluded corner of the cargo hold.

"That sounds really romantic, Cat," Tori pacified her. "And your ring is gorgeous! Can I see it?"

Cat happily passed her ring to Tori, who ogled at it in the dim lighting. Beside her, Andre shifted nervously. Cat's ring was huge. Like, _huge_. At least five carats. He couldn't see how her hand could lift it. But Cat had always been attracted to big, shiny things. As ostentatious as it was, it fit her personality perfectly.

The time Robbie was on the phone was easily spent admiring Jade and Cat's engagement rings. They even began discussing wedding details with Tori. Even Jade, who not a half hour earlier had been fuming that Beck had even suggested to someone that they were getting married in the next year, was beginning to fantasize about the ceremony. If she had her way, it would be an evening wedding in late January—because everyone hated cold, dreary, dark January weather, which meant that Jade loved it. She would wear black; Beck would wear black; the bridesmaids and groomsmen and all the guests would wear black. They'd get married at the Museum of Death, and, if they were lucky, Tori would faint in terror.

Somewhere in the middle of Jade's daydream, Robbie returned, a smile on his face so wide that it looked like it would pull his face apart.

"We got the deal!" he blurted out.

Cat shrieked and immediately jumped up and threw her arms around his neck.

"That's sic, man!" Andre chimed, getting up to clap Robbie on the shoulder. "What deal?"

Dazed, Robbie explained: "Well, originally, we had already planned to do another tour soon, but we needed new material. So we thought, 'We'll do another Netflix special. Those go over well.' We've never had a problem pitching those before. Well, a couple weeks ago, Netflix came back and offered us a comedy special _and a T.V. show_. They want to do a pseudo-scripted comedy like _Parks & Rec _or _The_ _Office_. And, Charissa, my agent, she just called to say that the studio was good with our requests, _and we're signed, and we start production at the end of the summer!_"

Now Tori shrieked. Andre and Beck cheered. And Jade just smirked.

"_And, of course, established Hollywood starlet Robbie-freaking-Shapiro gets another huge break," _Jade thought. She was happy for Robbie, yes, but, oh, was she jealous. Not that she would ever admit it.

"Dude, that's insane!" Beck grinned. "Congratulations! I know it'll be a hit."

"Thanks, guys," Robbie said. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all."

Cat kissed his cheek. "Does this mean we can tell everyone about us?" she asked.

Robbie sighed a happy, content sigh as he absentmindedly stroked the top of Cat's brown head. "Sure, sweetie. We can get a skywriter and everything."

Suddenly, Robbie jolted. "Oh my God! Where's Rex? I need to tell him!"

Andre, Tori, Beck, and Jade all shrugged. It had been nice catching up without the puppet's constant interruptions. They didn't particularly care where he was. Besides, they were on a boat. He was either nearby or drowned, and either one was fine with them.

"He's probably up on deck with Sherry and McKenzie still," Cat piped up. "C'mon, we can go get him. It's almost time for karaoke."

She took Robbie's hand and skipped toward the cargo hold door, her massive engagement ring sparkling in the dim light of the single lightbulb.


End file.
